Pedro Suarez de Longoria was named as “oidor”, or
magistrate, for the Audencia de Mexico on January 24, 1603, in
Ventosilla. Less than 5 months later, on June 16, 1603, he departed for
the New World and New Spain. Pedro took with him several "criados",
or servant boys. One of those "criados" was Lorenzo
Suarez de Longoria, who in one document found in the Archives of Seville
referred to Pedro Suarez de Longoria as "tio", or his
uncle. It is from Lorenzo Suarez de Longoria that I and many other
Longorias in South Texas are descended.

Most likely, the ship carrying Pedro and Lorenzo landed in Veracruz, perhaps after stopping in
Cuba, sometime in July or August of 1603 and Pedro and Lorenzo became
the first Longorias to set foot on the New World. This would have been
about 5 years after the villa of Monterrey had been established in Nuevo
Leon.

On October 30, 1616, the Viceroy of New Spain made a request to the
King of Spain that Pedro Suarez de Longoria be removed from his position
as magistrate in the Audencia de Mexico. Apparently, Pedro in his
position of “oidor” was accumulating property and other
possessions in his own name. If so, then Pedro succumbed to greed, and
could not resist the temptation to accumulate wealth at the expense of
the King’s treasury. Little is known about Pedro Suarez de Longoria
after 1616.

Lorenzo Suarez de Longoria apparently migrated to northern Mexico
after Pedro Suarez de Longoria lost his royal position. It may be that
both Lorenzo and Pedro migrated to the mining community of Zacatecas
and/or Monterrey. We know that eventually Lorenzo Suarez de Longoria
made his way to Monterrey, in the province of Nuevo Leon, because it was
there that his son Lorenzo Suarez Longoria (the 2nd) was born
sometime around the year 1629. The elder Lorenzo stated in his will that
he never married, so in all probability Lorenzo (the 2nd) was
illegitimate. The mother was Ana de Salazar, the widow of Jacinto de
Cobarrubias and a granddaughter of Diego de Trevino, who had been a
resident of Mexico City since the mid 1500’s.

Second Longoria Generation in the New World

Lorenzo Suarez Longoria (the 2nd) was born in Monterrey
but probably spent his adult life in both Monterrey and Saltillo. He was
probably born around 1629. Little is known about his life. He was not
mentioned in his father’s 1665 will, perhaps indicating that he had
died by then; if so, he would have been only about 36 years old. Lorenzo
(the 2nd) had at least five children (Maria, Ana, Pedro,
Francisco and Jose Jacinto) by Antonia Rodriguez, a citizen of
Monterrey, and at least one child (Nicolas Suarez de Longoria) by
Beatriz Gonzalez. The elder Lorenzo mentioned only two grandchildren,
Maria de Longoria and Jose de Longoria, in his will; there is no mention
of Ana, Pedro or Francisco Longoria Rodriguez, or of Nicolas Suarez de
Longoria. Why they were not mentioned remains to be determined; however,
a possible explanation is that the elder Lorenzo simply did not have
sufficient assets to leave for everyone and selected two of his most
prized possessions to leave to his two favorite grandchildren.

Pedro and Francisco were natural children (i.e., illegitimate). In
all likelihood, all children of Lorenzo Suarez de Longoria (the 2nd)
were natural children.

Antonia Rodriguez, Lorenzo’s “common law wife” and the mother
of five of his children, was the granddaughter of Diego Rodriguez, one
of the 15 settlers who came with Diego Montemayor when he founded the
city of Monterrey in 1596. She was also the great great granddaughter of
Diego Montemayor, the founder of Monterrey and Governor of Nuevo Leon.

Third Longoria Generation in the New World

Pedro Longoria Rodriguez, son of Lorenzo Suarez Longoria (the 2nd)
and Antonia Rodriguez, was born circa 1652 in Saltillo, Coahuila, New
Spain. He was still a citizen of Saltillo when he married Agustina
Garcia sometime in 1678 (the Church conducted their marriage
investigation on January 23, 1678). Agustina Garcia was the daughter of
Diego Garcia Quintanilla and Mariana Zaldivar Sosa; she was also the
second cousin of Pedro’s mother, Antonia Rodriguez.

Pedro’s wife Agustina Garcia Zaldivar came from a distinguished
family. Her maternal grandfather was Capt. Vicente de Zaldivar, who had
a distinguished military career as the chief officer of Juan de Onate in
his expedition to New Mexico. He led several side expeditions from Onate’s
base in New Mexico to explore what was later to become the American
southwest. One expedition was to the buffalo plains east of the Pecos in
September 1598. Another was to the southwest of New Mexico. In November
1598, Vicente's brother, Juan de Zaldivar, and 14 companions were
ambushed and killed at the Acoma pueblo in New Mexico by the residents
of the pueblo. Vicente brutally avenged his brother's death in January
1599 by attacking Acoma and laying it to waste. In 1602, Vicente
Zaldivar went to Spain to secure a confirmation of Juan de Onate's
titles and to secure a force of 300 men with whom to continue
exploration beyond Quivira.

About seven years after Pedro and Agustina were married, Spain began
to receive reports of a new threat to their sovereignty claims over the
lands, which were to become Texas. In 1684, La Salle left France with
colonists, headed for the mouth of the Mississippi where he hoped to
establish a French colony. La Salle, however, overshot the Mississippi
River and landed instead in Matagorda Bay, where they were shipwrecked
in the shallow waters. Coming ashore, La Salle established a small fort
and colony a short distance inland, and claimed the land for France.

From 1686 to 1690, Alonso de Leonmade five expeditions into
Texas from Nuevo Leon, searching for the reported colony established by
La Salle with the intent of destroying it. De Leon finally found the
remains of the French colony on his fourth expedition in 1689. The
native Indians had already demolished the fort, and most of the French
inhabitants had been killed. De Leon then helped Fray Massanet to
establish two missions in 1690 among the Tejas Indians near the Neches
River. This was the first Spanish settlement in Texas and its primary
goal was to establish the northeastern boundary of New Spain, thus
attempting to prevent further foreign incursions.

Accompanying Alonso de Leon on several of his expeditions into Texas
was Juan Bautista Chapa, who kept a detailed diary on the expeditions.
He later combined his diary with knowledge gained from his work as
secretary to the governors of Nuevo Leon to write a book he called the
"Historia de Nuevo Leon". This is the definitive historical
work on northern Mexico and south Texas. However, for almost 300 years
no one knew who had written the "Historia de Nuevo Leon"
because Juan Bautista Chapa chose to remain anonymous. He did so because
he recognized the many difficulties and dangers in writing histories
during that era. The incredulity of some and the censure of others would
make life very difficult for the author, with many rebukes and
criticisms. Juan Bautista used the example of Zoilo, who rebuked and
criticized the Greek poet Homer, whom Juan Bautista calls the
"Prince of Poets". Thus, the author of this important history
became known simply as the "aútor anonimo". It was not
until 1961 that the noted Mexican historian, Israel Cavazos Garza,
identified Juan Bautista Chapa as the author through extensive research
and analysis. As we shall see shortly, Juan Bautista Chapa was an
ancestor of the Longorias (and many others) of South Texas, and probably
our first such
ancestor to set foot in Texas.

Pedro Longoria Rodriguez and Agustina Garcia Zaldivar had five
children, all of whom were born in Monterrey. Apparently, they moved to
Monterrey soon after their marriage. Their eldest child is believed to
be Juan Diego Longoria.

Fourth Longoria Generation in the New World

Juan Diego Longoria was born in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, probably
around the year 1680. By July 30, 1718, Juan Diego had moved to
Cerralvo, Nuevo Leon, where on that date he married Maria Clara de
Chapa, granddaughter of the aforementioned "aútor anonimo",
Juan Bautista Chapa. Cerralvo was a mining community and it is my
supposition that Juan Diego moved there to pursue riches as a miner, but
there is no actual record as to why he moved to Cerralvo. It was in
Cerralvo that Juan Diego Longoria and Maria Clara de Chapa had all ten
of their children.

It was also in Cerralvo, after Juan Diego had been widowed, that he
and his family joined a caravan headed north to establish a new
settlement by the Rio Grande River. The lures for joining an endeavor
sure to be full of hardships and danger was the promise of a land grant
from the King of Spain, an exemption from taxes for ten years, and
perhaps most important, a once in a lifetime opportunity to improve one’s
social status. The new settlement they founded would be the first of
five established on the Rio Grande under the direction of Jose de
Escandon; this settlement was named Santa Ana de Camargo, known today
simply as Camargo. It was one of the original settlements in the new
province of Nuevo Santander.